Istfemer

When specific directions were given in dialog.tlk regarding certain areas, I tried to strictly follow them where possible. In a few cases it wasn't possible though for one or other reason. I deemed an error margin of up to 40 degrees (in select extreme cases) acceptable. That is, where dialog.tlk says an area is South of some reference point, I might've put that area SE of that point on this map instead. There's only one exception to this: Neera's Clearing in ToB, which I'll explain in detail later. --- ORIGINAL BG1:TOTSC AREAS BG:SOD AREAS ORIGINAL BG2:SOA AREAS ...to be continued...

@DavidW Your comments are very much appreciated. I'll post my (still incomplete) list of detailed notes on area placements first and then address your two points in a separate post.

I have 4 large standalone maps of Faerûn as references before me + the map of FR Interactive Atlas + a few regional maps from lorebooks + a few custom-made regional maps from various online sources. One is dated 1357DR (late 1st edition, I think); two belong to the 2nd edition, one of which is dated 1367DR (which is pretty close to BG1's timeline) and the other one's undated; the fourth belongs to the early 3rd edition and is dated 1372DR (well past the events of ToB). They're all different! All 5 of them. It is my impression that S.Breit's map (the one we're discussing here) largely uses the 1372DR map as a base, which presents its own set of compatibility challenges for me. For example, the 3e map doesn't depict Kuldin Peaks. Where are they? They're gone. Where are they gone? It's a mystery. Kuldin Peaks simply disappeared without trace one sunny or maybe rainy day. For what I know, they might have sprouted propellers and roared away into the Realmspace. Anyway, Saradush is NW of Omlarandin Mountains on the three older maps (just as on the map in FR IA) and SW of them on the 3e map (and thus also on S.Breit's map). So which location for Saradush is canon then? Good question.

@Sam. I have. FR Atlas is a useful source, but it does not cover some regions (like eastern Amn) as well as I hoped it would.

@K4thos Wow. Why, Beamdog? Those mighty walls... gone? That's... that's the heist of the century, I'm sure. ----- I also see that some trees have been replanted and the paved road has been tampered with (?re-routed?) as well. Hmmm.

One elegant solution would be to shift the rectangle encasing Baldur's Gate City to the east. As it is, the city is placed rather far to the west of its original location, so it's only fair to do so. Ulgoth's Beard should be shifted south in this case. ----- On a related note: @K4thos I proposed shifting the rectangle with Athkatla to the north and putting in on top of Alandor river. I'd still like to hear your opinion on this.

@Ulb The Sword Coast south of Baldur's Gate is, unfortunately, a very crowded place area-wise. Still, there *is* potential for improvement in this region. If I'm able to spare time, I'll review BG1EE areas as well. I can already see a few areas that are certainly in dire need of repositioning. In hindsight, I probably should've moved Heretic Temple a bit further NW, into the southeasternmost Cloudpeak Mountains. That is, into the proper mountains and not the foothills. For some reason I didn't do it. (?maybe because I felt that placement didn't fit the local area map well?)

@Lightbringer Well, the default EET map is definitely more compact than this map or the old BP-BGT map. It also reuses much of the original artwork from SoA's & ToB's maps, which is very nice. Is that why you like it better?

I think a 'no cloth filter' option is what I'd prefer too. This particular filter K4thos used distorts the map too much, IMHO.

OK, here's a brief breakdown of what I did: BG2+expansion: Reviewed and tweaked positions of all SoA & ToB areas with on-map icons. This was the hard part as SoA's & ToB's maps took significant liberties with Faerun's geography. SoD: Tightened positions of all areas with on-map icons except area BD4000 (Dragonspear Castle), which I didn't touch (it's kind of fine where it is). I also moved area BD5100 (?Underground River Interior?) to a slightly more appropriate position. I did not touch any areas in Baldur's Gate City. BG1+expansion: Tweaked positions of areas BG2000 (Balduran's Isle) & BG1008 (Ice Island). I did not touch anything else. IWD1+expansions & IWD2: I didn't touch any areas belonging to these games. --- I searched dialog.tlk & multiple lorebooks for any positioning info I could find on these areas. My searched turned up quite a few surprises for me. I'll post a detailed breakdown later.

GTU Light v13 - Typo in a line displayed when the number of active summons exceeds the summoning limit: "You cannot control more that # monsters at any given time."

Are there any technical limitations that are as of yet insurmountable? As far as I know, PST's IE variant is very different from all other IE variants. The arrival of EEs probably made PST not as starkly different from BG2 as its non-EE predecessor used to be, but I bet PST:EE still differs from BG2:EE significantly. Also I'm not sure EEex in its present state can handle PST:EE content in BG2:EE properly. How much of the story would have to be rewritten in order for the protagonists of both games to coexist in the same timeline? Vanilla BG2(:EE) does offer a plausible hook that could allow CHARNAME to visit Sigil. Thus, assuming that Sigil can wait until BG2, BG2's story probably wouldn't require many major alterations. PST's story? A great deal of it would have to be changed and some of it would have to be discarded altogether, I'm afraid. Do you think it's a vision worth pursuing? I'm going to say: Yes! How anyone can resist a quest of such awesomeness? Seriously though, PST content would probably make a fine addition to ToB. ToB needs more extraplanar adventures! CHARNAME's first visit to Sigil needs to occur in SoA though, otherwise we'd be hard pressed to justify introducing the city itself so late in the Bhaalspawn Saga.

I *knew* this question would come up eventually. Even thought about asking it myself. I wonder... Were EET to include PST:EE, would it necessitate a change of name on part of the former? From EE Trilogy to EE Tetralogy... or possibly even beyond. EE Cycle?

A suggestion for "Sensible Entrance Points" Add one or preferably two extra entrance points to AR1700 a.k.a. Small Teeth Pass: one in the southwest corner (at/around 70, 3090 local coordinates) and another one at the southern border (at/around 2650, 3100 local coordinates). Small Teeth Pass has a wooden bridge across a ravine; a bridge one can't simply bypass. It doesn't make sense that this area has only one defined entrance point. It calls for two at least.

If you *wish* to go the wishing way with IWD1 content then giving Charname a wishing scroll or even an item as the means to experience it is a poor idea due to the possibility of abuse. Thematically, it needs to be a Wish with a single option; a one-time, specific wish. Charname shouldn't be able or even inclined to waste it on something non-consequential. With a wishing scroll/item in their possession Charname could simply ignore the adventure hook and just go POWER OVERWHELMING! on the nearest boss. (Why would you upset the EET DM this way, Charname?) A scroll would also be unusable by most classes. As I said, it's better to let it be someone else's Wish. Another problem is connecting the plot of IWD1 to that of the Bhaalspawn Saga. It's not easy by any stretch. In my opinion, a *random* Wish, regardless of its source, shouldn't send you on an alt-reality quest involving Belhifet - the villain of SoD - of all enemies. Only a special (read: carefully interwoven with the overarching plot) Wish should do that. Otherwise you'd get a poorly connected, dangling mess.